Lab Safety
All incoming lab workers, including BSc / F-Praktikum students, have to have safety introduction(s) signed off or else you're not allowed to work in the lab.
Chemistry safety introduction (IB) includes a checklist, signed off by OTS or IB.
Biology safety introduction to be confirmed and signed off by JTS.
Contact First Responders immediately for help & first aid; and notify OTS as fast as possible in case of any accident.
Resources for safe lab work
* Safety in the Lab resources on Laborrichtlinie (English & German)
* Procedures for Lab Treatment of Waste Chemicals - Common disposal routes
* Prudent Practices in the Laboratory - Handling and disposing chemicals
* Cameo Chemicals cross-reactivity database
* Safety in the Lab Checklist (self-assessment).
* Annual Betriebsarzt checkup, vaccination, workplace specific consultation
* Hardcopy Resources in the Lab (see OTS): Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards; Destruction of Hazardous Chemicals in the Laboratory; Azide Fact Sheet; Quenching Excess Azide
10 Rules for Practical Risk Reduction in Chem Labs
Basic Precautions: Don't work alone in the lab; do get your safety introduction before any work; know the emergency procedures; use the right PPE (goggles, labcoat, gloves etc); ask around unless you already know how to do it safely.
(1) Easily avoidable risks
They are the source of most accidents. Don't disrespect risks because they are familiar!
Clutter in the lab makes accidents inevitable. Keep floors, accessways, fume hoods, benchtops clear and tidy.
Glassware: Broken edges will slice open gloves and skin, exposing you to chemicals. Ditch dropped pressure-tubes. Implosion nets around underpressured flasks.
Inform yourself before performing new procedures - just ask for a second opinion (+ internet & MSDS). Don't distill crude ethers dry on the roti (peroxides).
(2) Fire
Unlikely, but the most serious safety threat in the lab. Most solvents have flammable vapours that can be ignited chemically, so don't store big quantities in the lab: this is the easiest thing to limit the fire potential. Be super careful with metals and organometallics (Na, KH, BuLi etc) in the presence of flammable solvents: keep a Dewar of liquid nitrogen handy - easiest cure for a burning syringe. If something catches fire, the key is: act fast! Yell for help fast, put it out fast if possible, or else get out fast (chem lab fires not getting under control within 20 seconds typically turn catastrophic: run away).
(3) Contact-Nasty Chemicals
If you get a spritz of acetone / dmso / solvents on dirty gloves, remove them immediately and start fresh. Long gloves / thick gloves and double-glove when using contact toxins. Never reuse dirty gloves.
(4) Disposal
Keep all liquid and solid waste containers capped, including blue barrels (but control for pressure buildup). Dispose of them immediately when full or if something nasty gets in. Take care that solutions with CN-, N3-, SCN-, SeCN- don't get acidified - label such bins accordingly. Quench reactive species (SOCl2, COCl2, ketene generators) before disposal, safely at the back of the hood. Keep a closable nasties bin at the back of the hood.
(5) Nasty Volatiles
Use the Stinkroti and the Stinklabor with known nasties to avoid getting them into the working lab. Use a gasmask if you have any suspicions of nasties in the working lab - it really really works. Potentially, store volatile nasties wrapped in parafilm, in the fridge or freezer to reduce their vapour pressure in the bottle.
(6) Volatile / pro-volatile reagents
Go through the nasties in your lab. Are they all closed properly? Especially chemicals that:
* evolve iron binder gases with moisture (KSeCN / KSCN / KCN / NaN3)
* are corrosive volatiles (SOCl2, AcCl, Ac2O, POCl3, MsCl, MsOH, P2O5) that eat through bottle lids before they corrode you. Parafilm if necessary. For such compounds: always open the bottles at the back of the fumehood and leave a few seconds for the built-up volatiles to draw out, before you bring them near the front. Weigh into closed vessels in the hood and transfer them out for weighing once closed. Store potentially volatile nasties in the Lager or in ventilated cabinets.
(7) Fume Exposure and Extraction
Maintain fumehoods closed except when working, and maintain under-hood drawers closed to focus ventilation power into the hoods.
(8) Pump Exhaust
Check the exhaust piping on rotavaps and high vac pumps in your labs: tightly fixed, clamped in place, and venting into the fumehoods.
(9) Fresh air
In hot conditions, with full sun, minimise your exposures to volatiles; crank the windows and the access door open to exchange the atmosphere if you need to do it fast. Even something as “innocent” as hexanes will build up to chronic headaches in a hot and closed environment. Same for the Lager - jam the door open when entering for a longer time.
(10) Condensed Vapours
Rinse out all lab equipment that traps volatiles and then opens to the atmosphere: eg rotavaps; roti pump traps; Schlenck condenser tubes; other. Caution with cold traps: don't close them off or allow them to become clogged (Schlenck traps) unless it's for a short time while working - as they warm up the pressure increase can blow them out.